Introduction to FTP

As you know, anything that is involved with the internet and computers is eventually going to have technical pieces and issues. One of the first things that the newcomer will run into is FTP or File Transfer Protocol.

As a web site owner, you will, sooner or later have to become very familiar with FTP.  If you have your site set up at a remote server, there will have to be some way that you will get the files you need to the remote server.  Guess what?  You are clever, that’s right FTP. This is one of the most common tools that are used and it is also the most efficient and simple once you learn the ins and outs.

The easiest way to explain the mysteries of FTP is this. There are two parts to the file transfer protocol, your client software and the server software.  It is like this, you are talking on the phone to someone and they are dictating everything that you say,   this is like you and your server, your software gives a message on file transfer, the server picks it up and carries out the process.

Lets say you wanted to get a copy of a file on a local computer to the remote server,  this process would be done by using the PUT command, as in put this here.  So you are done creating the web page (in a file) and then using the PUT command, you can put the web page on the server. If you want to take down the web page and send it back to the local computer, your software will simply issue a GET command.

Many people who use file transfer protocol today use a graphical interface. In essence, all the person has to do is click and drag to move the file.  All the technical commands are carried out in the background.

Even though you have a graphical interface program for you file transfer protocol, it is a good thing to know the commands and how to carry them out.  This knowledge will come in very handy on a day that your graphical interface decides to act up and you are on a deadline.

Are you aware that there are many other ways that a file gets moved from here to there?  Your browser is a perfect example of this, every time you enter in a web URL, you are requesting to move that file (the web page file) to your local computer. The whole file transfer job is done under cover and is not seen or noticed.

You can, with the help of remote access to the server, actually email a web page (in a file) to the remote server by sending it to someone on the server.  Then with your remote capability, set the file up.

Knowing these alternative methods of transferring files can be extremely helpful if the program for file transfer protocol decides to act up on you at a very inappropriate time.